Philosophy is great. But at some point, you have to build something real and put it in people's hands.
That's where we were after defining our core beliefs. We knew what we believed about how teams work. Now we needed to find out: Would anyone else agree?
MVP #1: The Three Buckets (That Nobody Used)
Our first MVP was simple. Almost too simple.
Three columns: Today, Next, Later. Drag tasks between them. That's it.
We were so confident. This was it. The answer to endless backlogs. The cure for infinite task lists.
We launched it to a handful of friends. And watched them... barely use it.
What went wrong:
The buckets existed, but there was no story. Tasks still felt isolated. You'd move something to "Today" but have no context for why it mattered or what to do with it.
People would create tasks, move them around for a day or two, then stop using the tool entirely.
What we learned:
Buckets alone weren't enough. We needed context. We needed the "why" not just the "what."
MVP #2: Adding the Feed (Too Much Noise)
For MVP #2, we added a feed. Every action generated an update.
"John moved Task A to Today." "Sarah added a comment." "John moved Task A to Next." "John moved Task A back to Today."
We thought: Perfect! Now everyone sees what's happening!
Instead, the feed became overwhelming. Every drag-and-drop cluttered the timeline. The signal-to-noise ratio was terrible.
What went wrong:
Not everything is worth broadcasting. Moving a task between buckets 3 times in 5 minutes isn't meaningful context—it's noise.
What we learned:
The feed needed to be intentional. Updates should capture decisions and progress, not just every action.
MVP #3: Notes Change Everything
This is where things clicked.
Instead of making the feed a log of every action, we made it a place for intentional updates. You post a note when something meaningful happens:
- "Starting work on the login redesign. Here's why it matters..."
- "Finished the prototype. Here's what we learned..."
- "Blocked on the API. Need input from engineering."
Suddenly, the feed wasn't noise. It was a story.
And when you linked tasks to those notes? Context lived with work.
People started using it. Not just adding tasks, but actually collaborating. The feed became the heartbeat of the project.
What we learned:
Work isn't just tasks. It's thinking, deciding, discussing, and documenting. Notes made all of that visible.
MVP #4: The AI Experiment
By MVP #4, we were using the tool daily. But we noticed something: We were typing the same kinds of updates over and over.
"Starting work on..." "Blocked on..." "Finished..."
We thought: What if AI could help here?
We added a simple "Ask AI" feature. It could:
- Suggest next steps based on your feed
- Draft updates based on what you're working on
- Summarize what happened this week
It was rough. Sometimes it was brilliant. Sometimes it was hilariously wrong.
But it showed us something important: AI works best when it has context. And our shared feed gave it exactly that.
What we learned:
AI shouldn't be a chatbot you talk to in isolation. It should understand your work because it lives in the same place your work lives.
The Experience We Were After
By the end of these first MVPs, we finally understood what we were building:
Not a task manager. Not a collaboration tool. Not a feed.
A shared workspace where work and context live together.
Where you see:
- What matters today (the buckets)
- Why it matters (the notes)
- What's happening (the feed)
- What to do next (AI helping you think)
It felt simple. It felt calm. It felt like the tool we always wanted.
But We Weren't Done
We had the core experience right. But the implementation? Still messy.
The UI was clunky. The performance was slow. The AI was inconsistent. The whole thing felt fragile.
We needed to rebuild. Not just once. Six times.
Each iteration taught us something new. Each one got us closer. Each one made us question if we'd ever actually ship this thing.
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Ready to try Bonjour?
A hyper-focused feed for your team. No endless lists. Just the work that matters.